Augie Sinclair
'Augustus Washington Sinclair '(born March 25, 1960) is an American politician who currently serves as the 36th Governor of West Virginia. He is an outspoken critic of President Calvin Reed and is widely seen as the voice of "blue collar opposition" to the administration's policies. Early Life and Childhood Sinclair was born and raised in the tiny coal town of Cambria, West Virginia, in a dilapitated old farm house, the son of a coal miner, Dick Sinclair, and his wife. Augie's great-grandfather shared his name, the aristocratic name when he left the smog of Liverpool for the green highlands of Appalachia. Augie was the youngest of six, and was told from a young age by his dirt poor, hard drinking father that his life would have two routes on account of his lot in life; he would either be a coal miner or a soldier, with emphasis on the former. Because he had to fight for food and nurturing from his mother, and got the belt an awful lot from his father, Augie was always was a trouble maker. He got paddled more than a few times per month at school, and had a penchant for smoking and women by the age of 14. One by one his siblings grew up and out of the house. A couple to Vietnam, the rest to the steel mills or the mines. Each vocation left scarring on every last one of them, a fact that Augie knew all too well from his Sunday dinners and brief visits. It was then that he vowed not to follow his father's harrowing destiny, and to craft his own. Pre-Political Life and Career After graduating highschool, he applied to the University of West Virginia. He got in, but when push came to shove it seemed God was not on his side. Not only did he lack the money to attend despite the relatively low price tag, his girlfriend revealed to him that she was pregnant. Following this revelation, he married her and marched down to the coal company, managing to snag a job as a miner. After his first week, he realized he could not do it for his entire life. And so like during Long's salesman days, Augie planned with his wife how he would escape the way of life that had trapped his family for generations. The Sinclair's scrimped and saved, by then living on their own, and raising a baby. Augie joined the United Mine Workers, able to do clerical work at their local chapter on the side. After having spent two years in the mine, and taking out a loan, Augie attended the University of West Virginia. His wife took on two jobs as a launderer and a waitress on the side, while he studied criminology. Shortly after graduation, he got a job as a police officer with the State Police. He then moved his young family to South Charleston, where he would stay for the rest of his adult life, raising the rest of his children through the years. Augie earned a reputation as a good cop, if not a hardassed one. He became a detective about 5 years after joining the force, and gained noteriety as a hero cop when he busted a pedophilia ring in the early 2000s, and for shooting four illegal aliens during a brutal home invasion he passed while off duty. It was shortly after this that he was elected President of the WV Fraternal Order of Police, a position he would hold until the president day, wherein he became popular amongst cops and the electorate alike, for his vocal support of not only police rights/benefits, but also the rights/benefits for veterans and the working poor. Political Career In 2010, Augie joined the Republican Party, and ran for Sherriff of Kanawha County. He easily won in a landslide, and never lost re-election, due to his willingness to get down and dirty. He made drug crime his biggest focus, and slashed the county's amphetamine crime in half, and reduced total crime by 25%, leaving behind a lasting legacy. In 2014, he got another taste of politics, as he helped to push a bill through the state legislature to give police officers more leeway in settling domestic abuse. He held the position of Sheriff until the 2016, when he resigned to run for governor, winning the Republican primaries using his hero cop past and ability to connect to common folk to his advantage and ultimately eeking out a win in the General election. Governor of West Virginia Personal Life Sinclair is 1/4 Shawnee through his mother's side. He has a total of 4 children: a son at Princeton, a daughter who is a homemaker, a son on the State Police force, and another son who is currently a Major in the US Army, in Korea. Sinclair is an avid consumer of both whisky and cigars.